Truth seems often to hold both ways. Take for example the relationship between invention and necessity: a well-known proverb is that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. But watching the boom of i-products, one could easily see the point made by Veblen: invention is the mother of necessity. No one really needs iPhone-5, it’s Apple Inc. that needs people to need their i-products.
More than 100 years have passed since the publication of Veblen’s The Theory of the Leisure Class. Many new things have been invented and turned into necessity. Fashion has taken several turns. But the fashion world hasn’t changed much, except that Apple has become the Gucci of gadgets. It is amazing to see how the invention of non-essential goods and services keeps thriving and becoming a necessity for the spiritual well-being of many.
I have nothing against fashion and the bitten Apple, they are beautiful products. I just feel uneasy watching the market encouraging the invention of one useless thing after another by appealing to people’s spiritual need to be special, unique, and superior. The irony is, there is nothing special of longing to be viewed as special. It merely evidences that man is by nature a social animal and the production of ‘socially justified wastes’ will continue to dominate the developed economies till there is nothing to be wasted.
In one of my ‘therapeutic’ afternoons I passed by a hair salon and decided to get my rebellious hair trimmed there. I was a bit in a hurry to do the groceries so I suggested the hairdresser skip the washing. In reply, she asked me whether I had put anything in my hair. When I told her that I did put some gel, she said that she would then have to wash my hair. “Sorry, but otherwise the blades of the scissors would become blunt too soon.”
The blades made blunt by my hair??
While sitting on the massage chair having my hair washed, I kept thinking about her remark. That something so strong and sharp as the blade of the scissors can be made blunt by something so light and soft as the hair is revealing. It is the power of many, however light and soft as individual, that collectively wears out the strongest few.
But it is the gel that makes the hair harder and increases the damage to the blade, not the hair in its purest state. To remove the hair with gel, it is better to wash the hair first, then cut the clean hair with the scissors. Simply let water and time do their job.
One thing at a time. Let the problems soften themselves. Take breaks. Preserve the strength for the right moment. Enjoy Il bel far niente, the beauty of doing nothing…the key to the sustainability of strength.
The name of my department is thoughtfully chosen: Risk and Information Management. Two topics that are intrinsically inseparable but practically detached from each other, like two sides of the same coin. At least, our ’risk’ people are working on completely different things from our ‘information’ people. Only when we meet at obligatory department meetings do we realize that we actually belong to the same department.
As one of the ‘ risk’ people, I do think about information management from time to time, but more from the risk management point of view. For example, how to make rational decisions when there is a lack of information. It is often stated that more information will reduce risk, but this is definitely not true. First of all, wrong information is known to be a high risk factor. On the other hand, even if the information is right, it is subject to misinterpretation and may lead to bad decisions.
From an economic point of view, abundance of information decreases the marginal value of information and increases the risk of misinterpretation. In such situations, it may be not worthwhile to collect more information. Perhaps it’s time to talk to our ’ information’ people about a joint information risk management research.
My research concerns many health issues, but health had never been more of a concern to me than it is now. After being healthy and energetic for many years, you tend to forget how it is like to be ailing and tired. And sometimes you are just too busy to get ill. Then there comes the day when your body refuses to work for you…To me, that happens when I was attending a meeting on ‘complex adaptive systems’, a research theme I was greatly interested in.
The last three weeks I have been struggling with a lingering headache, neck pain, and dizziness that sometimes drove me to nuts. I feel like the captain of a stranded ship, abandoned by my will and strength, resting but unable to rest. In those miserable days, being examined by one doctor after the other without any conclusive diagnosis, I often thought of Doctor House, the misanthropic medical genius in my favorite TV-series. How I wish that he existed and could diagnose my problem! I couldn’t help admiring his ability to reason flawlessly even in pain. If someone could get him to cure me, I would be ready tolerate his most cynical remarks.
After three weeks of taking things easy and getting myself fixed, my energy is gradually coming back. The diagnosis seems to be a combination of vertebral subluxation and vitamin D deficiency. It fits, as House would say. With hindsight, all my ailments seem logical and well deserved.
I was unable to produce a research proposal on ‘Complex adaptive systems’ on time, but I feel lucky that I could stop my ill-directed train before things go really wrong. Our body seems to have built-in feedbacks to prevent us from working ourselves to an irreversible drawn-out. It is wonderful to be part of a complex adaptive system.
